My skin damage was done in my early years. We didn’t cover up or even try to avoid the sun despite burning and peeling; we didn’t know any differently. I would urge the young people to pay attention.

At 60, athlete, fitness consultant and endurance coach Duane Franks has finished more than 300 triathalons, including 15 Ironman races, each consisting of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bicycle ride and a 26.2-mile marathon.

For Deborah, a nurse, educator and hiker, sun protection is part of the curriculum she shares with students, family members and friends.

Joel is a competitive tennis player and sports writer who covers tournaments in some of the world’s sunniest places. But his first awareness of the sun’s dangers came from an unlikely source.

“As much as possible” is how Stevie describes time spent outside in the fresh air and sun. Growing up in a Southern California beach community, Stevie, who is fair skinned and freckled, spent her growing up years bodysurfing, swimming, riding rafts, throwing a frisbee, playing beach volleyball and sunbathing on the sand.

Family vacations were surf trips to Mexico and Hawaii, and later, Costa Rica. Today she is an avid tennis player, on the court multiple days a week.

For an outdoor enthusiast and athlete the sun can warm the soul or be a formidable opponent. Diana is a tennis player, hiker, sailing enthusiast and plein air painter who grew up sailing with her father on sparkling Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. After years of fun in the sun, she has learned to wear “the biggest, floppiest hats possible” and seek the shade (even when she’d rather not).